It almost seems natural that the youthful rebellious mission of Pony Cars and the isolationist nature of Personal Luxury Coupes would eventually meld somewhere in the brougham seepage of the late 1960s. And Mercury, perilously devoid of a unique image for all of its life as Ford’s middle step on the ladder took one of the finest fillies of the Pony Car world, and wood appliqued its way into the muddle.

It can be said the original Cougar was already a step in the direction of the merge between Pony and Personal Coupes. Especially in XR-7 guise with genuine leather seating and a lot of 3M walnut applique, the Cougar melded the best of both self centered worlds: the relative light and carefree personality associated with the Pony Car, with the rich, unique touches and finishes of a personal luxury coupe. It didn’t hurt matters that it had sequential turn signals like the Thunderbird. Borrowing from the gadget trendsetter pioneer of market segment busters surely helped matters.

The blurring of character lines (and possibly the only fully distinctive product Mercury ever had) was in full swing as the Cougar bloated up a little bit in the 2nd generation. Not only could it count the Pontiac Firebird as a challenger, it could also count the all new Grand Prix as a rival.

But in the diversity of rivals, production started to slide, so the full Brougham treatment was called for. From the love child of a Flair Bird and a Mustang, the 1971 Cougar was a love child between a Pontiac Grand Prix (or the Bunkie Beak 1970 Thunderbird) and a Continental Mark III.

Apparently the Cougar was losing the scent of the prey. Sales slid again for the even larger, heavier pony car, as the sophisticated boomers traded their ever bloating pony cars (except for the lean and lithe F-bodies at General Motors) for Cutlass Supremes, quickly becoming the 800 lb gorilla in segment deifying cars. At least it wasn’t as fatal a step as the big new 1970 Barracuda/Challenger were proving to be for Chrysler.

Admittedly the Cougar pulled off the newfound bloat far better than its sister ship, the woefully purposeless 1971-73 Mustang. Actually out of all BroughamEra cars, these Cougars are my favorite, and perhaps the only ones of that school of thought that I like. Granted it helps that they came as convertibles, don’t have any pillow tuft velour seating options and could still shake a tail feather well enough in standard guise. For a Ford Product of the era it cuts a remarkably clean suit compared to the rolling wave of fenders or T-Square bricks that were normal from Dearborn in the early 1970s. It’s handsome, burly. Kind of like Burt Reynolds on that bear skin rug.

Were these attributes that my mother fell for when she got her drivers license in 1977? No. Basically it was the compromise between the 1972 Corvette she wanted, but my grandmother forbade, and the 1973 Plymouth Duster that was presented as a rebuff. So a split pea green XR-7 was the compromise. I wonder if that particular shade of green in epic use by Ford from 1968 through 1974 became a “discount” color as time wore on.

I also had experiences with these Cougars as my best friend in High School had a white 1973 XR-7 Convertible. I think one of the biggest things I still cannot grasp about Pony and Personal Luxury cars were, for their outward size, how cramped they were in the pursuit of style. I dreaded the times I had to ride in the back seat, just only marginally less than dreading climbing in the back of a classmates old Nova or Monte Carlo. The Cougar had to be the ultimate Personal Coupe in terms of “nobody wants to ride in your back seat.”

Well after 3 years of selling at a third of the rate of the inaugural Cougar, the ultimate bloat set in as Cougar moved up to full Brougham Personal Coupe, parting ways with the Mustang (as that car became some kind of personal coupe monstrosity rework of the Pinto) and spawning a comparable Ford product, The Elite. Otherwise Mercury took the one unique, good idea it possibly ever had and continued to morph it into something totally bland in a field of half baked pretentious “mid sized” coupes for the decade of ultimate isolation.

As it stands, the 1971-73 Cougars were possibly the boldest statement the Mercury brand ever made. The Brougham Pony Car, available as a convertible. You were a car whose intentions were good, but oh lord were you ever misunderstood.

Share this:

72 Comments

There was something about the front end of these that I was never able to get past. The rest of the car was at least as attractive as anything FoMoCo did during that time period. But that front – yuck.

It has been eons since I have seen one of these, but then I live in the midwest, where these rusted down to their frames in about 6 years.

I think that you are right – this car made a better brougham than it did a pony car. But I still can’t deal with that front end.

Bingo! I totally agree. While the rest of the car is quite attractive – the front end what were they thinking?

It’s funny though – these cars are so much more attractive than most cars today. Of course, this is from a guy who thought that 1976 Cutlass Supreme was the most attractive car of all time when it came out. I was 12 though.

The most shocking thing about cars of that era – how small the interior is and how poor the materials were compared with today.

To me, it always seemed like they shrunk a 1971 Galaxie Proposal and put “Brougham” style cornering lights on the fenders and called it a day. Not beautiful, but respectfully handsome compared to what was coming.

As for your Galaxy there, I kind of like these, my Dad had the 71 Custom 4 door sedan back in the mid to late 70’s.

I have to admit, they were a bit nondescript, but they had their own style that is attractive enough, for the day.

The one we had ended up being super reliable and long lived. The last I heard, it was sold to a good friend of my youngest sister. She and her soon to be hubby who was in the rangers, soon ended up in Panama and they sold the car there, still running several years later and as far as they knew, it’s still running around down there, if it hasn’t dissolved into rust by now.

Now, we didn’t buy it new, but used from the US GSA auto fleet auction so it was at about 4-5 years old when we got it, bare bones with a V8.

dastanley

Posted April 24, 2012 at 2:23 PM

I also owned a ’71 Ford Custom 500 with the 351W, 2BBL, and single exhaust. It was 4 DR, plain white, and no trim. I paid $500 for it in the summer of ’83 and sold it in December ’88. It got me through my last year in high school and through 4 years of college. It burned oil and looked fairly beat up, but it ran and got me where I was going. Memories…

“At least it wasn’t as fatal a step as the big new 1970 Barracuda/Challenger were proving to be for Chrysler…”

The Barracuda and Challenger while new, but were not in any sense “big” especially for the times (the Challenger actually rode on a longer, but all-but-noticeable wheelbase than Barracuda) nor were they a fatal step” for Chrysler. As we all know, these two cars are such muscle car icons today the rarest versions trade hands at prices exceeding a million dollars, that being not better tribute to the evergreen appeal of a car design.

Without doubt, the 1970’s found Chrysler stepping out over the abyss and clearly running from the sound of fatal footsteps (the irresistible steps of the grim reaper ending in tears by the end of the decade).

But the new Barracuda and Challenger models can be found on that short list of of Chrysler Corporation 1970 sales success stories that included:

1. Creating two entirely new models in the form of Duster/Demon using the 1971 face-lift funds (without permission) for the Valiant/Dart models.

2. Chrysler Cordoba/Dodge Charger (Cordoba was developed as a Plymouth but then given to the “no junior models” Chrysler division at the 11th hour) personal luxury cars replete with opera windows which defined the category in the 1970’s…

3. Reducing the MSRP and tacking on the just discontinued Imperial’s front clip onto the “beautiful” ’75 New Yorker “it’s the talk of the town…” as Jack Jones used to sing in TV adverts wearing black tie with that oh-so cosmopolitan ruffled white shirt — watch it:

4. The Omnirizon twins designed by Simca and rushed over to the states double-time to bolster the failing Plymouth and Dodge model range…

I think that you hit “reply” to my comment instead of going to the bottom of the thread and entering a new comment, as it looks like you intended to do.

But you raise some interesting points. The 70 Barracuda was a fair amount larger than the 69, owing to its being based on the larger B body platform instead of on the smaller A body platform. I think that Laurence’s point was that these cars did not sell particularly well when new. It is true that they are much more prized now than then, but their huge popularity was decades coming. I have not checked the figures, but it is my recall that by 1974, the Barracuda/Challenger’s sales were pitiful. By 1973-74, muscle/sport was out and luxury/brougham was in. Who knows: collectors in another 15 years may be slobbering over 70s brougham-mobiles just as doddering baby boomers are trying to sell off their muscle cars to pay the nursing home bills.

“Investigators said the man had access to the gated Preston Hollow neighborhood Bush lives on. The man was at a friend’s house showing off his Mercury Cougar at about 7:45 p.m., investigators said. (Editor’s Note: Earlier reports described the car as a Plymoth Barracuda. It was later identified as a Mercury Cougar.)

“The man told investigators he ran onto the Bushes’ yard when his gas pedal became stuck.”

What’s more wrong? Calling the Brough-gar a muscle car? Mistaking it for a Cuda? Or an editor who can’t spell “Plymouth”?

The original Cougar – still the best and the only Mercury I have ever liked.

All the OEMs up-sized their cars, and along with car mags, I could never understand why. GM probably pulled it off better than everyone else, but that didn’t make it right. The Fords were simply awful, though…

Never was very interested in these later model Cougars. Was in Panama when they came out and there were better things to hold a young mans interest. Went to a service school with a guy who had a 67 XR7. Always bragging about it and his wife. She left with it before long so he didn’t brag much more about either of them. I always just took that as some sort of divine intervention to stop the bragging.

I liked it as well as the mustang in that year. Come to think of it, I didn’t care for either of them by 1973.

My sole close up encounter with this generation Cougar was the anti-brougham. I met a guy with one in the mid 80s, he was an accountant from Alabama and his orange 73 had been his first new car. This was the most stripped Cougar possible, a 351C with a 3 speed floor shift, vinyl bench seat, no A/C (despite being bought in the deep South, manual brakes, steering, etc. as Spartan as a base Dodge Dart.
Cougar trivia is that the Sci Fi author Keith Laumer loved the cars and had a large collection of early Cougars.

Actually benches were available in Cougars and Mustangs, I know at least the 1964-66 Mustang had an available Bench, and so did the Cougars (although I don’t know if they were no cost/cost delete options or priced options). I’ve seen one or two Mustangs with the factory bench seat, and one 1968 Cougar… Rare but available.

The original 1967-68s are if not my favorite, within my Top 3 favorite FordMoCo products of the 1960s (it’s a musical chairs between the Flair Bird and the 1963 Galaxie XL Fastback).

But these are definitely my favorite 1970s Ford (of the USA) product because they are rather full of character (as confusing as they might be in that) which everything else from Ford seemed like a revamped Falcon, a Brougham, or a Brougham Falcon until the Fairmont/Zephyr. Then again, I have a love/pity for most Mercuries….

I always thought the first-generation Cougar was a good example of how platform sharing can work out. Its relationship to the Mustang was pretty clear, but it looked distinct and provided enough in the way of value added to justify its moderate price premium. In that, I think it did pave the way for the A+/G-body Grand Prix and Monte Carlo: a specialty car look without the cost of a new bespoke body.

Very nice article, and I always love your photos! For some reason, I always remember these cars in the dark mustard yellow color, with a light brown half-vinyl roof.

Motor Trend compared a 1971 or 1972 Cougar and Monte Carlo. They weren’t too enthusiastic about the Cougar, primarily because it was neither fish nor fowl. It was too big and clumsy to be a pony car, but, in too many little ways, it just wasn’t fully competitive with the Monte Carlo, which made no bones about being a cut-rate Eldorado.

Which pretty much sums up my feelings about the car. The first-generation Cougar is still the best, but, among the 1971-82 versions, I’ll take the 1974-76 model, which didn’t straddle two market segments and end up appealing to neither.

The only thing I like about this era’s Cougar is the taillights/rear bumper treatment, and that’s only the ones that have the vertical “bars” on the lights, otherwise I prefer the Mustang’s looks particularly the Mach 1. Which is funny because I’d much prefer the styling of the 67-70 Cougars over the same year Mustangs, other than maybe the 67 Fastback not that I’d turn down a Boss 302 or 429 (should I win a few million). I even prefer the styling of the 74 up Cougars over the 71-3.

The decision to double-down on bloat and brougham with the 1974-up Cougars is a curious one. In fairness it must have been made before the Oil Crisis shook things up, but even still you would hope someone could see a simple pattern. The original sporty-luxury-compact Cougar was a sales success; the follow up personal-luxury-midsize was not. There seem to be two options: think “we had it right the first time” and go back to what worked or think “huh it must not be big or broughamy enough” and double down. This is a great opportunity for Packard-style “what might have been” re-imagining!

So here’s my 1974 Cougar. Obviously they couldn’t keep it partnered with the Mustang. But they had another Ford to share platforms with, the Maverick. Sure it’s a Deadly Sin for Ford, with it’s body larger yet more cramped than a Falcon. But Mercury could have built a coupe on the longer 110 inch wheelbase of the Maverick sedan, given it a more formal roof line, and stuck a smaller version of that big chrome grill on the front. Maybe even hide-away headlights if the budget had a little extra room. I think that front end treatment would work better on a smaller car, and the platform sharing would have made it profitable.

So it seems to me taking it the personal luxury route was the way to go since those shared much more in common with the Ford stable mates they were likely more profitable on a per unit basis too. It was what the market wanted at the time, the Pony car market was saturated, insurance companies and govt regulators had taken the gallop out of the market and the market was moving on.

I bought the 1967 in June 1973 for $800 in Syracuse, NY. These car were prone to ruse and they used a lot of salt in Syracuse. This was also the first year for the Cougar. It was a pretty car, dark burgandy with a black vinyl roof, but it had a number of weak points, including:

* The engine ran very hot. This was fixed by the Lincoln-Mercury dealer with a fan shroud
* The sequential tail lights were based on an electrical-mechanical setup from the 1965 T-Bird
* The plastic toggle switches often broke. They were made more durable for the 1968 model

One of my best friends had a 68 Cougar in the second half of the 1970s. For some reason, the rear quarter panels were WAY more rustprone than in the Mustangs. He also had problems with the sequential turn signals. Also, his door locks and latches were perpetually freezing in the winter, to the point that the doors would often not latch. He took to tying the doors shut with a rope between the lock post and the rear window crank. Crude but effective. The sound of the 289 with a Thrush muffler was a beautiful thing.

Someone rear-ended him, which resulted in a newly refurbished rear body. After that, the car still had all of its problems, but it was a beautiful car. It was eventually totalled when someone ran a traffic light. It sat behind his parents house for several years, but it is probably long gone by now.

My second Cougar was a 1973 XR-7 with a 351 V8. I purchased this car for $1500 in 1977 in Fall River, MA. It had about 30,000 miles and was in in very nice condition. It was bright yellow with a black vinyl roof that emphasized the wide C-pillar.

This more of a mini T-Bird than a Grand Touring Mustang. It was a solid car and I owned it for 11 years.

It had it own problems, specifically cheap plastics for the interior. It was also a pain to get aligned.

I replaced this Cougar with a 1986 Lincoln LSC with a 5.0 liter (302) V8. The Lincoln was a far superior car to the Cougar, but in many ways it seemed to be a close relative.

My third and final Cougar XR-7 was a 1969 Convertible. This was originally cream yellow with a tan leather interior. I had the car painted black with a gold accent strip along the fender the ridge line.

This was a very pretty car and very fast. Two fast given the braking system (front discs only). The Holley 4-barrel carburetor was also a challenge to keep tuned.

I purchased this Cougar in 1979 for $1200 in Greenwich, CT. I eventually sold it for $4000 in 1983 to help pay for my first home..

One of the guys in the Cougar club had one of these, a W code (427) with dual quads/automatic as all W codes were. WICKED ride. The later R code 428 CJs could be had with a 4 speed, but are still very rare.

Check the above links for an unusual accident involving one of these in Alberta a couple of weeks ago-in that infamous green to boot!
I was listening to the police scanner when it happened and followed up on it.
Imagine, 40 years on the road, kept in mint condition, and then, pow !

I never caught on to the 71-73 Cougs, but did love the 67-69 cougars with the 69 being my fave of the 3.

I just found it a bit sexier looking than the 67-68 bodies and loved where they put the backup lights, very unusual indeed and it, to me was in ways a cleaner, more svelt looking car than the first 2 years.

I had an elementary school principal who had a mustard yellow early 70’s cougar, I think a 71 but it could’ve been either the 72 or 73 and I think he had it for years since where I grew up, rust was not an issue. Unfortunately, he’s long gone now but was a good friends with my parents, especially my Dad as they were in the same Kiwanis group back in the day.

I like the 69s as well. As well the 70s to lesser extent. There’s a bit too much tinsel added for my taste.

The 71-73s I like… mostly. Simply because I don’t know how the Cougar could have been updated for 71 whilst staying fashionable any other way. It had an interesting but tasteful blend of Mark VIII and Grand Prix in it. Biggest problem was that most of the Ford and Mercury lineup aped that styling by the time it went midsized in 1974.

The convertibles always looked cool to me though, top down AND top up. It’s just got a really nice profile to it. I absolutely despise the flying buttress roofline on these and the Mustang coupes. I think if the coupe had the top up profile of the vert it would be a much better looking car.

I was going to say that about the rooflines but you beat me to it. These (and Mustangs) work for me as a convert, the HT not so much. The 1969-70 big Galaxie XLs have the same effect on me-Love the ‘verts but hate the flying buttress HT.

I remember having a model kit of a ’71-’73 Cougar coupe, but I can’t remember the exact year or which company made the kit… AMT, Revell, Monogram. One of those companies made 1/24 scale, the others were 1/25. It was red.

My uncle had a ’70 Cougar convertible, white over maroon with a 351. It was a nice car. I’d like to see someone make a convertible version of a ’67 or ’68 using Mustang donor parts.

There were two charismatic ‘rock star’ auto execs in the sixties whose success created a love/hate relationship with their bosses: Lee Iacocca (Ford Mustang) and John DeLorean (Pontiac GTO). I believe that the Cougar was a response to the Mustang’s success entirely due to the jealousy of Iacocca’s boss, Henry Ford II.

Hank the Deuce had wanted the original Mustang to be a ‘small Thunderbird’ (the 1958 and later personal luxury versions) but, somehow, Iacocca prevailed. Although he was undoubtedly pleased with the Mustang’s unbridled success and how it swelled Ford’s coffers, Hank had to prove his idea was still valid, and the result was the Mustang-based Cougar. Until the final ’99-02 version (long after HF2 was dead and gone), did Ford ever come out with a non-Thunderbird-ish Cougar.

If there’s one car that says Henry Ford II during his time at Ford, it’s the Cougar. The Mustang might have been Iacocca’s brainchild, but the Cougar belonged to Henry Ford II.

I owned a 1973 Mercury Marquis Brougham as my first car I paid a whopping 150 bucks for it. The suspension in those cars were crap but. They would haul butt for as big of a boat that they were. I was on State Rd. 80 coming up to a small bridge over an inlet off the caloosahatchee river. It used to be only 2 lane there with a turning lane to a side street and you were supposed to merge quick either before or after. Someone in a similar year Cougar was next to me at the light on the right and couldn’t gain an inch on me off the line. He was so pissed. He probably ran home and kicked his car for getting beat by my ugly orange tugboat with a 7.0 liter 429. Sad to say my Chrysler 200 will beat the Mercury with 100 less horsepower. And the 2013 Corvette eats as much gas. The gas gauge almost ran inversely as the speedometer.

My dad had a ’73, powder blue with a white vinyl top with a matching white interior. He traded his 1969 Mustang Mach I in for it. I was 10 at the time so to me it was pretty cool. Actually, the only thing that stands out about his Mustang was the turn signal light in the engine hump on the hood.